Ever since high school, my friend, MD, and I have been talking about owning our own business. Back in the day, we dreamed of opening a bar, but as we got more savvy, we discovered that bars and restaurants are extremely hard to keep going. Employees tend to "help themselves," bar managers give away too many free drinks, and good help is hard to find and keep.We've been exploring other options over the years. Just kicking ideas around. Our latest thought is to open a hobby store with an emphasis on these little toy soldiers (Games Workshop's WHFB and WH40K) that I've mentioned on and off over these past few weeks. Games Workshop calls these independent game dealers "Rogue Traders" after similar independent characters in their WH40K fluff.
There are no actual hobby stores in our town. There is a full-on toy train and model shop in the next twon over, and not far from that is the baseball/sporting cards store where I buy the vast majority of my WH40K models. One more town over is a hobby shop in a mall. 30 minutes south of us is a huge mall with an actual Games Workshop store inside.
There's a pretty well-used retail district in our town, and even a well-known section for boutique shops called The Mews. What's interesting about the Mews is that many of the shops are for Ladies' hobbies, cross-stitching and quilting. There is also a comic book shop; but nothing else for men or geeks really.
MD and I both play games. I'm hooked on the Games Workshop "plastic crack" which I think has broad appeal especially among the younger set. MD likes the historical war games. I actually started with a historical samurai army before a co-worker pointed me at WH40K. We're thinking that carrying several lines of miniature games, and setting aside some space for game tables might help set us apart from the other stores in the area, and give customers a reason to keep coming back. We also thought we might carry supplies for building elaborate scenery for the game tables, and a few sideline items like T-shirts. Doesn't every man need a shirt with the legend: "Don't Tell My Wife What I'm Doing"? He's mentioned books, but I'm not sure how to compete with the Borders and Barnes and Nobles in the area.
We still don't have a name for our shop. So I'm open to suggestions. We're not rushing into this rashly; I still have a growing family and need to have health insurance. I figure it will be a couple of years before MD gets this off the ground, and it might even be a couple more before I jump my current ship to go in with him full-time. But I am opening it up to the floor here at Occam's Broadsword for further suggestions. Just don't expect any remuneration. But you can expect a smile when you come through the door.
4 comments:
You wouldn't include any Joe merch. Especially accessories. Where is there a good Joe store in the area.
An interesting thought, and one we've had. The Comic Book store in town does carry used 3 3/4 inch Joes from the 80's and 90's. These are the ones I've been obsessing about on this blog. But they don't carry Vintage Joes.
I don't think we want to get into the whole antique, vintage, old fashioned Joe business. However, there are a number of suppliers of high end Military replica figures: Dragon, BBI, Hot Toys, etc. I really should post some links to Action Figure sites. These are accurate down to some small details and cover a variety of different historical eras. I have several Samurai and ninja in my collection, and a Knight Templar. I've seen American Civial War figures, Revolutionary War figures, Roman Legionnaries, Vikings, etc. It fits our theme, and would appeal to our market, no doubt.
And there is no dedicated 1/6 Figure store in our area that I know of. I bought all my stuff on-line.
So this is a good suggestion. Keep 'em coming.
Call your store Alternate Realities. That's why I've always liked gaming...it takes you away for a while. Plus, that name kind of sounds sci-fi-ish. It doesn't really explain what the store sells, though. You could maybe just include that in a little slogan underneath the title.
There are gaming stores in Utah that are similar to what you may be thinking of doing with the game tables set up. I don't really know what they do, but I imagine they hold weekly events to promote people coming into the store to play(and buy things). You might want to get a sign that says, "Welcome...Loitering strongly encouraged".
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